Power Up

By Maryanne Murray Buechner; Lev Grossman; Anita Hamilton

PUT SOME PEP IN YOUR STEP

Need a helping hand to lift heavy objects around the house or yard? The Power Assist Suit, developed by a professor at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology in Japan, is a computer-controlled system that uses air pressure to augment your strength. In tests, a 100-lb. woman wearing one was able to lift a 150-lb. man. As you bend your arms and legs to start lifting, sensors on the suit detect which muscles are being used and activate a battery-powered air pump, which in turn inflates a series of air bags on the suit. As the bags inflate, they provide added support for your back, arms and legs. INVENTOR Keijiro Yamamoto AVAILABILITY 2005, $15,000 to $20,000 TO LEARN MORE yamakei@ we.kanagawa-it.ac.jp

IT'S SO COOL, IT'S HOT

Here's your schedule: you get up in the morning. You stick a meal in the refrigerator. You go to work. Around noon you use your cell phone to call your refrigerator and tell it to turn itself into an oven. The oven cooks your food so it will be done at 6 p.m. You come home, and dinner's ready to eat. That's the future according to the makers of the Intelligent Oven, an appliance that can cool and cook food and follow instructions sent via a cell phone or the Internet. It even has two separate compartments that can heat and cool independently of each other. Now if only it would do the dishes afterward. INVENTOR Tonight's Menu Intelligent Ovens AVAILABILITY 2004, price not available TO LEARN MORE tmio.com